SSL sisterly rivalry put on hold
| Friday, Oct 24 2008 02:02 AM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 02:35 PM
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Bakersfield Christian's Lyndsay Cooke is one of the key players who makes the Eagles a favorite to win the Central Section Division V team title this season.
Bakersfield Christian's Chelby Cooke is one of five locals playing for a Central Section tennis title next weekend.
SHAFTER -- Sorry, Central Section, but you'll have to wait for a Cooke-vs.-Cooke singles match.
If it comes, it'll be for all the marbles.
To no one's surprise, Bakersfield Christian dominated the South Sequoia League girls tennis championships that ended Thursday at Shafter High School.
Lily Schuler and Carolyn Stevens won a three-set match in the doubles semifinals against Taft's Leslie Cook and Briana Lemmon, then won the championship over the BCHS No. 2 team of Melissa Merrill and Jimmie Futrell.
The Eagles dominated the singles tournament too. But the most anticipated matchup of the league finals was wiped away when semifinalist winners Lyndsay and Chelby Cooke, along with BCHS coach Frank Thiessen, decided not to have the sisters square off in the finals.
"With the whole sibling rivalry and things like that, I decided it was a good idea not to have them play and (instead) get ready for Valley," Thiessen said.
If the Cookes meet in the Central Section singles tournament, it would be in the championship because league finalists are split into seperate halves of the bracket.
Defending section champion Gabrielle Gatewood of Visalia-Redwood also is in the field. Lyndsay Cooke, a junior, lost a three-set match to Gatewood in last year's final. Chelby Cooke is a freshman.
"Because of the situation, they'd just prefer to wait," Thiessen said.
They certainly set up a collision with dominant performances in their semifinals Thursday. Lyndsay Cooke beat Arvin's Danielle Abarquez 6-0, 6-0 and Chelby Cooke defeated Katja Thacker of Tehachapi 6-1, 6-2.
Abarquez beat Thacker 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 for third place, and Abby Croy and Hannah Trott of Tehachapi knocked off Cook and Lemmon for third place in doubles, 6-4, 6-0.
The top four singles and doubles finishers advance to the individual Central Section tournament, which begins Nov. 1.
